This application is related to and claims priority, under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119, from Japanese Patent Application No. 11-155444, filed on Jun. 2, 1999, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for-use-on-board having a connector housing, a bar-like terminal protruding from the connector housing wherein the terminal is soldered to a printed circuit conductor of the board so that the connector is mounted on the board.
2. Discussion of Background
A so-called xe2x80x9cfor-use-on-board connectorxe2x80x9d has a terminal that is electrically connected to a mating connector. A rear end of the terminal is drawn out from a connector housing, is soldered directly to a printed circuit conductor of the board, and is thereby mounted on the board. In this for-use-on-board connector, because a plurality of terminals are simultaneously inserted into insertion holes (through-holes) of the board, these terminals need to be positioned with respect to the connector housing.
This type of for-use-on-board connector is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-162198 (hereinafter xe2x80x9cJP ""198xe2x80x9d). The for-use-on-board connector of JP ""198 prevents mis-alignment by being equipped with positioning means between a connector housing and a terminal. This for-use-on-board connector will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.
This for-use-on-board connector 1 is equipped with a connector housing 3, a male terminal metal fitting 5, and positioning means. The connector housing 3 has a plurality of through-holes 9 formed therein and the through-holes 9 are opened at a rear surface thereof.
Under the through-holes 9 of the connector housing 3, a plurality of fitting protrusions 11 are provided at the same pitches as those at which the through-holes 9 are provided.
A male terminal metal fitting 5 is obtained by bending so that the male terminal metal fitting 5 is L-shaped. The male terminal metal fitting 5 has a connecting portion 5a fitted to a female terminal metal fitting (not illustrated) and a leg portion 5b inserted into an insertion hole 13 of a printed circuit board P. The male terminal metal fitting 5 is mounted onto the connector housing 3 by forcing the connecting portion 5a into the through-hole 9 from a rear of the connector housing 3. The leg portion 5b has a fitting hole 15 formed therein and the fitting hole 15 permits the fitting protrusion 11 to pass therethrough. The fitting protrusion 11 and the fitting hole 15 constitute the positioning means 7.
In this for-use-on-board connector, when forcing the connecting portion 5a of the male terminal metal fitting 5 into its corresponding through-hole 9, the fitting protrusion 11 passes through the fitting hole 15. In this state, a forward end portion of the fitting protrusion 11, which protrudes rearwardly from the fitting hole 15 by means of a jig (not illustrated), is caulked so that the leg portion 5b is clamped by caulking head portions 11a. Then, the connector housing 3 is fixed to the printed circuit board P. Simultaneously, the leg portion 5b is fitted into the insertion hole 13.
According to the for-use-on-board connector 1 configured as described above, interfitting of the fitting protrusion 11 and the fitting hole 15 is reliably performed, the leg portion 5b is kept as its right attitude, and there is no possibility that the leg portion 5b will be mis-aligned.
However, the above-described conventional for-use-on-board connector has the following drawbacks. Namely, because the leg portion 5b is immovably fixed by caulking the forward end portion of the fitting protrusion that protrudes rearwardly from the fitting hole, the leg portion 5b is certainly unlikely to be mis-aligned. However, when the terminal is expanded or contracted during soldering thereof, the terminal gets out of position due to the resulting deformation directly acting on the soldered portion between the leg portion 5b and the insertion hole. As a result, cracks could possibly occur in the solder. Also, if the leg portion 5b is not immovably fixed in order to allow absorption of expansion and contraction, the terminal gets greatly mis-aligned. As a result, even when positioning the connector housing and the board relative to each other, positional coincidence of the leg portion with the insertion hole cannot be achieved. As a result, the problem results that the assembling operation that uses an automatic machine cannot be performed.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems and has as one of its objectives, to provide a connector for-use-on-board which can absorb the deformation of the terminal due to the expansion or contraction thereof during soldering thereof and can position the terminal relative to the connector housing, thereby preventing the occurrence of cracks in the solder and enabling the performance of the assembling that uses an automatic machine.
To attain the above-described objective, a connector for-use-on-board, according to a first aspect of the present invention, includes: a bar-like terminal protruding from a connector housing, wherein a forward end of the terminal is soldered to a printed circuit conductor of a board; a position-regulating hole which is formed in such a way as to pass through a position in the vicinity of the forward end of the terminal in a direction perpendicular to an axial line of the terminal; and a position-regulating protrusion protruding from the connector housing, the position-regulating protrusion being loosely fitted into the position-regulating hole with a prescribed clearance.
In this connector for-use-on-board, the terminal is retained and positioned so that the terminal may be movable within a prescribed range. As a result of this, unlike a case where the terminal is completely fixed, even when the terminal is expanded or contracted during soldering thereof, the amount of deformation thereof is absorbed as the deformation of the terminal as a whole. Accordingly, a large stress resulting from the deformation ceases to be applied to a joint portion between the terminal and the printed circuit conductor. Accordingly, solder cracks that will occur when the terminal is completely fixed are prevented. Also, the terminal is positioned within a prescribed range. Therefore, if relatively positioning the connector housing and the board, the positional correspondence of the terminal to the printed circuit conductor makes it possible to realize the assembling operation using an automatic machine.
A connector for-use-on-board, according to a second aspect of the present invention, further includes: a base portion of the terminal which protrudes from the connector housing; a bent portion which is formed in the terminal between the base portion and the position-regulating hole; and an arraying plate which protrudes from the connector housing, the arraying plate being provided with the position-regulating protrusion, the arraying plate being parallel with the terminal on a forward end side from the bent portion.
In this connector for-use-on-board, the expansion or contraction of the terminal are reliably absorbed by the bent portion. As a result, compared to a case where the terminal is in a straight-line form, a stress that is applied to the joint portion between the terminal and the printed circuit conductor becomes small. Therefore, the occurrence of solder cracks become more unlikely. Also, the arraying plate is disposed along the terminal that has been bent and the position-regulating hole of the terminal is loosely fitted over the position-regulating protrusion provided on the arraying plate. As a result of this, the terminal is movably retained in a desired array.
A connector for-use-on-board according to a third aspect of the present invention has the terminal mounted in the connector housing by insertion molding in a manner such that the terminal projectingly protrudes from the connector housing.
In this connector for-use-on-board, the base portion of the terminal that protrudes from the connector housing is reliably fixed without using a special fixing structure. As a result of this, a terminal structure, wherein the base portion is rigidly fixed while the forward end is movable, can be constructed in a simple form.